Maltese state schools and the European Commission Report

By an educator

The 2022 Malta report was published by the European Commission last May. The Maltese public became aware of it only on July 5 when it was mentioned in the Times of Malta where the headline read that Private school students are two years ahead of public ones, EU report claims.

The European Commission report has once again opened the debate about the education being offered to our children in State Schools. While the report states that students in Private Schools are two years ahead, one has to pause and see in what context this is being said. Is the European Commission taking this information only from the PISA results? Or have other factors been taken into consideration? What the report certainly did not take into account was the area where the schools are located and the background of the students that these schools cater for.

I was educated in government schools and I have spent all my teaching career in the state sector. I firmly believe that the State should provide the best education for all children. We head off to Mater Dei for treatment when we are ill, so too should all parents not fear to enrol their children in state schools. But how can this be achieved when, it is a known fact, that there is a handful of thriving state schools but many more failing ones?

In secondary education, the area where students live is crucial. This is creating unnecessary peer pressure and in the current situation, State schools are destined to suffer more than Church or Private schools. This issue of peer pressure was mentioned by Prof. Ronald Sultana in his article dated 8^th July 2022, where he stated:

…. What is not being discussed – because it is politically inconvenient to do so – is the issue of ‘peer effects’. I am here referring to the bundling together, in some schools, of students that have (or quickly develop) a counter-school culture, and the concentration of the rest – as many as 40 percent – inhabiting a different sector of the system.

What nobody dares to admit is that the college system has brought about or better still aggravated such a situation and exacerbated the economic and social disparity that exists between different towns and villages in Malta. Bundling the students altogether, from Kinder 1 to Year 11, in the same area school does not always lead to diversity and inclusion. It only leads to more peer pressure against schooling, especially where the prevailing culture is anti-education. This is one reason why Private Schools thrive because students are selected on the basis of money, and whose parents do not foster any anti-education culture. Unfortunately, the government has no form of selection whatsoever. Instead, it prides itself on putting all its eggs in one basket. In the distant past, government prided itself in selecting pupils on the basis of knowledge.

So the following question comes to mind. Are we going to let failing state schools to continue sinking further down? In these conditions, how can we provide quality education to all students?